Introduction

This document is a guide to ensuring that visual assets produced in-house or externally for CIWF look, feel, and sound like one voice speaking with a cohesive vision. Whether seen by the public, businesses, other NGOs or internally - films, podcasts and GIFs need to communicate effectively to drive engagement.  

This guide isn’t designed to hamper creativity or introduce constraints - there is plenty of scope for taking video design in any direction depending on the audience, platform or message. Instead, it will make sure that what is produced is enhanced and easy to find when archived, with a view to keeping it relevant for future users.  

Whether straight reportage footage of barbaric animal practices or animated dancing pig GIFs – there are common qualities that you’ll find guidance on here. There are lists of terms you might encounter and tips on techniques, tools and filenames to make it easier. 

This guide goes hand in hand with Compassion style guides and other guides to help unify all our output. 

Audience 

An important consideration when producing any media is to know your audience. Tone-of-voice and language used are important. A video aimed at the food industry, philanthropists or the scientific community will not sound quite the same as something made for supporters. Here is where research can be put to good use and you can ask some questions about who your video is attempting to engage and inspire. 

First thing to ask yourself is: what is the purpose of the video you’re making? Raising money, asking for signatures, providing stewardship, or introducing a topic? Putting this at the top of the list of pre-production tasks will make planning easier and will make sure the copy and images are all focused on the task at hand. 

Who is going to see it? 

Another question that will affect your final edit is 'Who is your audience?' Are they familiar with Compassion and its aims or will they be new to the organisation? Sorting into warm or cold targets can change how you approach the material. You’ll find you tailor the copy to better explain some concepts or, alternatively dive straight into the heart of the matter.  

It’s important to remember that we can appeal to the innate need of people to be seen to do good and show they have values. A charity on Facebook will have an easier time of this than a brand will.  

Regularly and clearly mentioning exactly how a change has been made in the lives of animals, or the environment, will always attract more attention and lead to action. 

The Impact of Images 

It might not be a surprise to learn that images of young animals – pigs and cows in particular – work better at getting people to watch your film. Big eyes and “cute” tails and snouts are all big draws and guaranteed to get an audience. Do your own tests and trials using drawn, 'cartoony' and animated animals. Empathy seems to be most easily won by showing real animals and the reality of their lives.  

Similarly, cruel footage is best balanced with something positive. A positive image at the end of a video can be very powerful. However, regardless of the positive image, the cruelty shouldn't be too extreme either. Scenes of cages and crowding are more effective for a Compassion audience than visceral slaughter and bloodshed which Facebook is not likely to accept anyway. In fact, now Facebook is even unlikely to allow negative images of caged animals. The lesson here is: keep up to date with the rules on your favourite social platforms! 

Sticking to one animal per film or as few as possible can help focus the story and keep those animals close to the camera. Too much panning or moving through empty sheds or dirty floors can quickly lose the attention of viewers. Analytics, especially in YouTube, can tell you the exact points at which the audience stops watching – it’s very insightful and you should look at this to help you improve your storytelling. 

Story and Storyboard 

Every video has a story. Even a single image tells a story through copy, music, motion or all three, so the story is something that every creative must consider. 

A Pig’s Tale 

A typical story will explain the problem (e.g. Pigs are suffering because of changes to the law), and explain how the situation could be improved with an emphasis on how quickly/effectively this needs to happen (e.g. Donating money will allow us to fund a campaign of action or protest, posters, ads, etc.) and then followed by an ask and instructions (e.g. here's where to go to donate and a suggested amount). Often a positive image is included at the end to show what the difference looks like in the lives of pigs. 

A longer film might take its time to detail the tragic situation, but the expected outcome is the same, to drum up support/donations and whip up action! 

Script 

Write a script with directions, copy and the types of images you want to see. This might be enough to properly communicate to stakeholders and your crew. Or you might need a... 

Storyboard 

To help with plotting your story you can use the storyboard tool to plan images and copy to get a quick preview of how your video will look. 

By replacing the placeholder images and text it’s possible to quickly check timings and impact. The one linked to above needs PowerPoint to work and it couldn’t be simpler to use. 

Alternatively, you might draw your own on paper or computer with pens, shapes or even a 3D programme. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just that it captures the story you are trying to tell. 

You have a storyboard! What next? 

At this point, if you haven’t already done so, you should discuss your ideas with colleagues in your team or working group, in the digital team and, finally, you should seek sign off from your director (i.e. before costs are incurred!). 

Types of Film 

Let's walk through some of the types of film that Compassion needs and might commission either internally or externally, after a word about subtitles: 

All films should include subtitles where possible or where clear screen text is not already on display. This is because so much content is watched on mute (on a phone or in an office environment where noise might be an issue). Strong, clear subtitles should be at the bottom of the screen, stand out from the video behind, typically displayed on 1 or 2 lines of text, in 2-4 second bursts. They should be able to be comfortably read without distracting from the visuals. Avoid uppercase letters in subtitles. Use sentence-case for ease of reading and to appear less like everything is being shouted! 

In the example below the subtitles are in Compassion’s screen font, Frutiger (san-serif font) in white with a thin black border to show up against any background. They sit some way off the bottom of the screen (older monitors and TVs would cut off the surrounding picture, and newer playback software might have “pop-up” controls in the lower portion of the screen, so this is good practice) and are large enough to be read easily without detracting from the picture too much. 

A Facebook Ad  

(or it could also be used for Twitter or Instagram) is generally no more than 20 seconds in length, designed to “stop the scroll” - meaning that it is kinetic, quick and attention-grabbing to arrest the attention and provoke a strong reaction. It should end with a call to action such as to donate or to act now.

A Campaign Film  

will often be longer, a minute or two, and take its time to tell a more complex story around an issue or topic. It still must grab the attention and be clear and concise, but also hold a lot more information. It too could end with a call to action.  

Example Live Exports campaign film:

An Interview 

features one or more people talking to the camera about a subject usually cut with footage or images illustrating what they are discussing. Try not to include whole conversations, cut down to the important points and cover cuts with additional footage or alternate angles. 

The below frame from an Italian film is a good example of how we took an interview and made it more arresting with speech bubbles containing the important points and images projected behind the talker (Elena!). 

Pre-Production Checklist 

At the start of any project comes the consideration of the budget and the amount of time it will take. Speak to everyone involved to find out how much it will cost and how long it will take. This should include: 

Crew 

How many people are operating the kit? Do you need to cover the cost of a single editor to edit existing footage? Or maybe you are shooting something new in which case you might need several camera people, a sound recordist and maybe a director. Depending on the size of the shoot, you might need even more. Plus, travel, accommodation, food and drink too. Or maybe you are just paying a single operative. You need to know, though, prior to starting.  

Kit 

If you are shooting some new footage, you’ll need kit. This includes, but is not limited to, cameras, lighting, sound recorders, actors, props and costumes. Chances are you won’t need all this but if the campaign demands, you never know! Your crew might come with their own kit or you might want to use a phone to get the right look. Again, whatever route you take needs to be carefully considered. 

Permissions 

Do you have permission to shoot at the location you are using? What about that image or footage you found on the internet? Or that music track you sourced – you may need to buy a licence. If you use a location or audio-visual asset, you need to check you have the rights to use it/be there and that you have an agreement to do that in perpetuity or for a limited time. And permissions also come with stipulations on where they can be used and whether they can be modified. Do you have signed clearance from the people you are interviewing that they consent to this being broadcast? And this can cost money – so needs to be researched and costed. 

Be sure to start with a warning if your video contains flashing and/or strobing effects.  

Legal Requirements and/or Must-haves 

Always end with the animated Compassion logo (reduce to a static logo for shorter-form content) and be sure to include copyright and charity number below, as in the example here:

© 2020 Compassion in World Farming International - Registered Charity No. 1095050

Always credit images and quotes from external sources, making sure the name of the photographer or agency is clearly displayed without being more prominent than the messages we are trying to communicate.

As with many high profile campaigns at Compassion, other NGOs may be involved. Don't forget to thank those organisations for their help.

File-naming, Frame rates, frame size and pixel aspect-ratio 

File naming convention 

Naming your file correctly can help people find and identify it easily, obviously tagging and meta-data can help with logging and archiving but a good filename puts something at the top that can reveal some key facts about what’s inside. 

Make sure the title is relevant. If it's about a single animal, make sure the name of that animal/species is included in the title. If it’s an investigation, include that, if it's for social, put the name of the platform in there. And finally, cap it off with the frame size and framerate. 1080p is a shorthand way of telling the user that the video is 1920 x 1080 pixels in size and that the field structure is progressive (as opposed to interlaced). 

Example file names

• Cows_Oct20investigation_1080p_25.mp4
• Chickens_PositiveBehaviour_480x640_29-97_ProRes.mov

A quick rundown of common terms 

• 1080 – 1920x1080
• 720 – 1280x720
• PAL – 720x576

• NTSC – 720x486
• p – progressive fields
• i – interlaced fields
• 25fps - 25 frames pers second
• 24fps - 24 frames pers second

• (in Europe, 24 and 25 are the ones you’ll encounter with digital video most often)
• 2398fps – 23.98 frames pers second

Frame size 

• HD  - 1920x1080 pixels, usually 24 or 25fps
• 4K - 3840 x 2160 pixels again can be 24 or 25fps but also 30 and 60fps for certain platforms
• PAL - an older format, used mainly on tube TVs 720x576 (4:3 aspect ratio) pixels with rectangular pixels, so the image is slightly stretched to the equivalent of 768x576
• NTSC - as with PAL, but less resolution at 720x480 pixels
• SQUARE - 1200x1200 or 1900x1900 are usual for videos used on scale that need a square aspect 

• INSTA vertical 1080x1920 – basically HDTV on its side!

Pixel Aspect Ratio 

This refers to the width of the pixels used to display the video image 

• 16:9 anamorphic - as we saw with PAL above, older TVs achieve a widescreen appearance by stretching the image horizontally and then stretching it out by making the pixels very wide so the whole image appears widescreen
• square pixels - used for computer monitors and modern TVs, square pixels are everywhere!

File formats and Data Rate 

Codecs 

Whatever codec (compression-decompression tool) you use it’s important to check the quality of what you’re encoding. You can’t improve on the source footage, but you can ensure there is no ‘generation loss’ (converting video down from one format to another), or at least that it’s minimised when re-encoding footage. Your video editing software will have a setting in the export section to choose the codec and the data-rate when you save. Use a low data-rate to preview footage to people when sending over the internet and save at a higher data-rate when exporting your final video. Always check it to look for compression artefacts such as banding where colours are reduced in gradients and “smeary” effects where there is fast motion. 

Additionally, always set your export to the highest quality when archiving footage to be potentially reused in the future. Editors will thank you for leaving them the highest quality assets. 

H.264/MP4 

In the old days, compression meant a substantial reduction in image quality and reduced colour palette to make a video that was small enough to fit on a CD-ROM for example. Since the H.264/MP4 format (both refer to Advanced Video Coding) it has been possible to compress video to low data rates (see below for data-rate info) and still maintain quality of the image even at high frame sizes. In fact, even if your video is 4K, the file size would not be noticeably different if you were encoding the same piece at HD resolution.  

Pro Res 

If you must edit video and you want to maintain quality, it’s best to use the QuickTime format and Pro-Res. You have the option of making the video uncompressed or lossless. Your files will be large but for best results start from a high-quality source if possible. 

GIF 

A GIF file can be used to store images or animation for online usage. For this reason, it’s best to keep movement short and sweet. The image can be compressed by reducing the colour palette or degrading the image so it’s possible to end up with very small files. If someone asks for a GIF, it is likely they will need something small and short. 

Data-rate/Megabits per second 

An H.264/MP4 video export dialogue box will allow you to set the data rate you want to encode at. For a smaller, email friendly file, aim for no lower than 2Mbps. For online use or a presentation use 10Mbps or as close as possible. As ever – check the result for quality to make sure it looks as good as possible. Very fine detail with high contrast will generally not encode well at all so you might need to go higher or consider using a variable bitrate that makes 2 passes. This will evaluate the troublesome areas and encode at higher rates for the problematic areas. 

Editing and effects tools and project file management 

Adobe After Effects is the desktop tool of choice for many who want to add effects to footage. AE allows you to easily layer footage, add filters, crop, rotate and scale. It also adds tools for tracking video, useful if you want to follow an object around on the video or stabilise camera footage, as well as a host of animation tools. Its traditional editing abilities are limited but it is a powerful and easy tool to use otherwise. 

Adobe Premiere Pro is a non-linear editing tool for assembling video and audio as well as captioning, colour correction and effects for high definition broadcast and film work. Premiere Rush is the cut-down version for users on a budget. 

Final Cut Pro X - developed by Apple - is a Mac-only non-linear editing tool for assembling video and audio. Past iterations looked and felt similar to Premiere but since then, FCP has changed its look and feel considerably. 

Post-Production Checklist

Digital Asset Management (AssetBank) 

A storage system for assets. Compassion uses Asset Bank to store, preview and retrieve all kinds of media. Whatever tool you use it's important to store assets by using names and keywords that mean they can be found and retrieved easily by searching. 

Quality of Footage 

Compassion uses footage from all over the world captured on a variety of different devices. While the highest quality images should be achieved, it's important to note that reportage and hidden-camera footage will often be grainy, unfocused and smeary when moving.  Don’t try to correct this or cover it up, just accept it! 

Editing and creative techniques 

Use Fades or dissolves sparingly! Cutting between clips in the same scene or location is an absolute must. They might be used to transition to an end card or to black to underscore the power of what we are seeing but, as a rule, fades should not be used unless necessary to the story being told. 

Make text large enough to read, keep it as short as possible and don't place a box, shadow or glow behind it, thinking it will help it show up better. House style is to place text on images and video without any extra objects or effects. This will keep it legible and connected to what it’s sitting on. Consider a side bar or a separate screen with a blank background inserted between two images if the text is clearer there. 

Music and SFX 

Make sure you have permission and rights to use any music and sound effects that appear in your video. There are free resources out there and some for which you can pay. Make sure the rights are correct for the countries you are using it in and for the delivery medium, be it TV, radio or online. If you pay to use audio, make sure you save the license/registration details in a public folder on OneDrive/DocumentManager. 

Animation techniques and style 

Sometimes photos and video aren’t suitable for a project and animation is necessary. Here are some things to consider to ensure your animation is smooth and easy to understand, regardless of whether you're animating text, characters or abstract shapes. 

• Keep it as quick as possible. Long movements and slow moves mean the viewer loses interest quickly.
• Keep movement smooth and don’t make things travel too far. A move of a few pixels in a short film works better than something moving from one side of the screen to another. This isn’t an absolute rule but small and simple is best.
• The word 'smooth' is mentioned a few times here, but sometimes a staccato, flickery style works better – looking as though the animation is at 4 frames per second as opposed to 25. The important thing is to pick a style and stick to it so it’s consistent. Avoid mixing styles.
• Stick to a small palette of colours. Outside of the Compassion colours, try to use a limited set of colours to make it easier to maintain a consistent look.

• The Compassion style is simple, elegant, and bold. 

How to make effective use of still images 

A lot of the guidelines here talk about moving images but some of these principles also apply to the use of still images. Sometimes all you need to get the point across on Facebook is a single JPEG with a well-chosen subject. With that in mind, here are some things to consider when using images for ads and documents. 

• An image should speak a thousand words so choose an image that is clear, simple and tells a story. For example, a pig in a cage should show just that. Crop it to focus on one animal (in particular the eyes) or a small group of animals so the pigs are not too small in the frame. Show the dirt and squalor without leaving too much extra information to distract the viewer and keep the animal clearly visible with cropping so that most of it is off-screen.
• Contrast the above with the green outdoors and the life they could live if you (the viewer) and Compassion were able to help them.
• Make sure the image is as high resolution as possible. You can shrink a large image to fill your frame size but never enlarge an image to fill the dimensions. It will look soft and noisy and ultimately uninteresting or unprofessional. You can’t put detail and information into a small image to make it larger. A quality Compassion image must stand against the very best images used by supermarkets, corporations and investment companies to get their message across to their consumers – these are the people we must speak at too after all.
• Make the use of copy on the image minimal. Cut it down to no more than 8 words if possible and rely on the image to tell the story. The text should never be on an image on a Compassion webpage.
• No borders, no effects, no extreme colour correction and no oddly shaped frames. Keep your image oblong and as close as possible to the conditions in which it was taken, and it will be a stronger message as a result.
• Check where the image is being used. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – they all have their own dimensions for various uses, and you must adhere to them.

You’ve reached the end of the Visual Media User Guide!  

Any further questions? Just ask! I’d start with the Digital Team, myself.